Answer

In Jain Dharma, if a soul truly has:

• Samyak Darshan — right faith,
• Samyak Jnan — right knowledge,
• Samyak Charitra — right conduct,
• complete destruction of passions,
• and destruction of the obstructing karmas,

then that soul can attain Keval Jnan — omniscience — in the same life.

So the issue is not that “you cannot.” The real Jain answer is: you can attain omniscience only when the required karmas are actually destroyed, not merely when one feels purified or practices sincerely.

Explanation

In Jain philosophy, omniscience is not granted by a deity, tradition, identity, or belief. It arises naturally when the soul’s knowledge is completely unobstructed.

For Keval Jnan to manifest, the soul must destroy the ghati karmas, especially:

• Jnanavaraniya karma — knowledge-obscuring karma,
• Darshanavaraniya karma — perception-obscuring karma,
• Mohaniya karma — deluding karma,
• Antaraya karma — obstructive karma.

Even a very sincere person may have deep subtle karmas remaining. In Jain Dharma, the final passions are extremely subtle. Anger, pride, deceit, greed, attachment, and aversion may become grossly absent, but their finest traces can still remain until very high spiritual stages.

A human male body is considered suitable for liberation in many Jain traditions because it can support the highest forms of restraint, tapas, and spiritual effort. But having a suitable body is only a condition of possibility. It does not mean omniscience automatically occurs.

For example:

• A human birth is rare and precious.
• Right faith is rarer.
• Perfect conduct is rarer still.
• Complete destruction of delusion and all ghati karmas is the rarest.

Spiritual Understanding

From the Jain viewpoint, the soul is inherently pure, full of infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite bliss, and infinite energy. Omniscience is not something added to the soul. It is revealed when all covering karmas are destroyed.

If you had truly destroyed all passions and karmic bondage required for Keval Jnan, then there would be no obstacle to omniscience. But Jain Dharma is very precise: partial purity, deep discipline, strong faith, or even advanced austerity are not the same as complete destruction of the relevant karmas.

There is also a distinction between:

• Suppressing passions — they are quiet for a time,
• Weakening passions — they are reduced,
• Destroying passions — they are permanently eliminated.

Only true destruction of deluding karma leads to the highest spiritual states that culminate in Keval Jnan.

Takeaway

You are not barred from attaining omniscience simply because you are living today. Jain Dharma teaches that the soul has the potential for Keval Jnan.

But omniscience arises only when the necessary karmas are completely destroyed. A suitable human birth gives the opportunity; total inner purification completes the path.